How can Rockford police stop the killings?

Tuesday

Jul 16, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 16, 2013 at 3:03 PM

Since the Fourth of July alone, Rockford has recorded seven homicides — eight if a homeless pedestrian killed in a hit-and-run crash July 6 is included. Homicides are on pace to easily eclipse last year’s mark of 14 and are approaching a mark closer to the 22 homicides Rockford recorded in 2011.

INSIDE: Day-by-day look at recent violence

Jeff Kolkey

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been changed to correct the spelling of Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers' name and to correct that Rockford has not accepted detective help offered Saturday by the county.

BELOW: Day-by-day look at recent violence

ROCKFORD — There is no place in Rockford that can make lifelong resident Deryk Hayes fearful, but persistent crime in the westside neighborhood where he grew up and had wanted to raise his children has forced him to relocate.

One reason Hayes moved near Jefferson High School this year from the Kent Street neighborhood blocks from where he was raised, was for a larger house that could accommodate his growing family.

But more importantly, Hayes needed a place where he and his wife were comfortable allowing their young daughters outside to play.

“I’ve never felt unsafe,” Hayes said. “I can go to any community, any neighborhood and feel just as safe as in what is considered the nicer areas of town. To me, it makes no difference. However, I am a husband and father first and my family needs to feel safe.”

Hayes said a lot of the violence he has seen in Rockford is associated with broken, fatherless homes, divided churches and weak communities.

Since the Fourth of July alone, Rockford has recorded seven homicides — eight if a homeless pedestrian killed in a hit-and-run crash July 6 is included. Homicides are on pace to easily eclipse last year’s mark of 14 and are approaching a mark closer to the 22 homicides Rockford recorded in 2011.

The rash of violence has raised eyebrows and questions about how the region is approaching criminal justice and public safety.

Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson said the department is asking officers to concentrate patrols in areas hit hard by violence. Detectives have made arrests in one recent homicide, are making progress on others and have made an arrest in a series of robbery cases from over the weekend.

Police are also attempting to work with residents and neighborhood groups to provide tips, report suspicious activity and cooperate with investigators as crime witnesses and victims.

And Epperson urges anyone with a dispute to call 911 for an officer to mediate before turning to a firearm, violence or bloodshed. Epperson is continuing to hire more officers, but said more police officers, prosecutors and judges isn’t the real answer.

“We need people to resolve their differences calmly and sensibly and not pick up a gun and shoot each other,” Epperson said. “We also need teenagers and their parents to obey the curfew laws. We need civility. We need the violence to stop.”

Epperson announced a new regional public safety push at the Monday night City Council meeting: Local and federal law enforcement will form a violent crime task force in Rockford.

The task force has been planned since U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin met in May with local officials, Epperson said.

Winnebago County Sheriff’s Police have offered to provide patrols on the borders of the city that could free city police to patrol crime hot spots. After the shooting death of 44-year-old Trovoie K. Huggins on Saturday night, Winnebago County detectives were offered to assist with the Rockford Police Department’s heavy workload.

Those offers have not been accepted, Sheriff Dick Meyers said.
Still, a special unit of Sheriff’s Police does monitor police radio traffic in municipalities across the county, including Rockford, and routinely provides assistance, Myers said. And Myers’ officers were asked to assist Rockford at other times of the year.

Mayor Larry Morrissey said there is no single cause for the violence and crime that has gripped Rockford in July.

There is no known connection between the incidents.

They are the result of a toxic chemistry of individual factors that touch on poverty, domestic violence, illegal guns, gangs, drugs and alcohol and mental health issues, Morrissey said.

Some of the July incidents involve gangs or gang members and others involve people attempting to solve a dispute with guns. A series of bank robberies may have involved people suffering from a mental illness, he said.

The beating death of 75-year-old Elizabeth Kinkade for which Reed A. Catalano, 43, was arrested is the suspected result of domestic violence.

“The police will do a great job working on these individual cases but when you start looking at the conditions that give rise to violence, it demonstrates a lot of the work we have to do together as a community,” Morrissey said. “It’s a mix of tragic circumstances. There are a bunch of factors that create a fairly dangerous chemistry and when you mix, when you add the prevalence of guns, it can lead to tragedy.”

Jeff Kolkey: 815-987-1374; jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey

Reporter Greg Stanley contributed to this report.

A deadly July

Rockford has had eight homicides since July 4.

July 4

Semarin S. Dubois, 27, is shot in the head and dies a day after a man on foot at shoots into a crowd of dozens around 11:30 p.m. in the 300 block of South Henrietta Avenue. The crowd had gathered for a neighborhood Fourth of July celebration and fireworks display.

July 6

Stacey Lawson, a homeless pedestrian, is struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash in the 3100 block of Auburn Street.

July 8

Elizabeth Kinkade, 75, is found at about 2:30 p.m. beaten to death in her basement apartment in the 1100 block of South Sixth Street. Reed A. Catalano, 43, of Rockford, is later charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, aggravated criminal sexual assault of the elderly, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery, concealment of a homicidal death and unlawful restraint.

William A. Wallis Jr., 33, is killed and Andrew R. Gustafson, 33, is critically wounded as they attempt to enter a pickup truck shortly before 6:20 p.m. in the 3300 block of Arcadia Terrace.

July 9

Daemoan Patterson, 17, and Charles Groom, 33, later die at the hospital after they are shot about 8:30 p.m. along with two others in the 600 block of Woodlawn Avenue.
Christian McGrady, 15, is shot in the back of the head just after midnight outside his home in the 800 block of North Central Avenue by occupants of a passing van. He remains in critical condition at Rockford Memorial Hospital until dying Saturday.

July 13

Trovoie K. Huggins, 44, is found shot to death on Cambridge Avenue, in his house just south of Washington Park and Concord Commons.